Supporting HNV extensive livestock systems in Mountain and Mediterranean areas – The need for an adapted European Policy
2014
Beaufoy, G | Poux, X
Extensive livestock systems in Mediterranean and mountainous areas of the European Union are facing many challenges. The majority of these livestock systems are of high nature value and their subsequent decline has many social, economic and environmental consequences. European policies are contradictory on this issue: on the one hand, pieces of environmental and rural development policies acknowledge the irreplaceable role of livestock systems; on the other hand, influential elements of agricultural and hygiene policies cause further problems for extensive livestock graziers and small-scale processors of livestock products. Policy responses to the problems faced by extensive livestock systems vary from one member state to another. The wide range of such answers is explained by different institutional arrangements between farmers, administrations and researchers. The paper argues that the present European policy framework is not satisfactory as long as it globally creates more problems than solutions, and that the solutions are only mobilized and efficient in the presence of strong local political commitment. Considering the importance of extensive livestock systems in Mediterranean and mountainous areas at EU level as a whole, it is crucial to set a cohesive policy framework favourable to their conservation at this level, going against the present policy trends. In this paper we have not limited ourselves strictly to Mediterranean regions, but refer broadly to southern member states of the EU, including Bulgaria and Croatia, and candidate member states such as Macedonia and Montenegro.
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Este registro bibliográfico ha sido proporcionado por Instituto Agronómico Mediterráneo de Zaragoza